Semiconductor devices are used in a variety of electronic applications, such as personal computers, cell phones, digital cameras, and other electronic equipment, as examples. Semiconductor devices are typically fabricated by sequentially depositing insulating or dielectric layers, conductive layers, and semiconductive layers of material over a semiconductor substrate, and patterning the various material layers using lithography to form circuit components and elements thereon.
Multiple gate field-effect transistors (MuGFETs) are a recent development in semiconductor technology which typically are metal oxide semiconductor FETs (MOSFETs) that incorporate more than one gate into a single device. The multiple gates may be controlled by a single gate electrode, where the multiple gate surfaces act electrically as a single gate, or by independent gate electrodes. One type of MuGFET is referred to as a FinFET, which is a transistor structure with a fin-like semiconductor channel that is raised vertically out of the silicon surface of an integrated circuit.
Conventional planar semiconductor devices often include gate dielectric materials that are fabricated using high temperature wet or dry thermal oxidation, which are processes that consume a relatively large amount of a silicon substrate by the combination of oxygen and the silicon substrate in a top-down process that forms silicon oxide. However, FinFETs and other multiple gate devices have a limited amount of silicon on their fin structures, and particularly as devices are reduced in size, consumption of the semiconductive fins of FinFETs and other MuGFETs during oxidation processes needs to be controlled carefully.
Corresponding numerals and symbols in the different figures generally refer to corresponding parts unless otherwise indicated. The figures are drawn to clearly illustrate the relevant aspects of the embodiments of the present disclosure and are not necessarily drawn to scale.